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User blog:Jcpag2010/Scribblenauts series has been closed!
=Scribblenauts Studio 5th Cell Is Closing Its Doors= 5th Cell CEO Jeremiah Slaczka has spoken to Polygon about the news, and has confirmed that the studio remains open but layoffs have taken place: :WB cancelled 'Scribblenauts: Fighting Words' today so we had to lay off the staff. It happened so quick we're not sure what the plans are going forward yet. Here's the full statement, issued after Slaczka's initial comment: :Unfortunately, due to a project cancellation, we have had to let go of 45 of our very talented staff members today. :Layoffs aren't something we take lightly and we'd like to thank all our employees for all the hard work and dedication over the years. :5th Cell as a company is not closing down, but our focus right now is 100% on helping our staff make the transition to other external opportunities. If we haven't already reached out, any interested employer can reach us at jobs@5thcell.com. 5th Cell, the studio behind the best-selling ''Scribblenauts'' series, has closed. The company was founded in 2003 as 5th Cell Media, LLC and its early works included Lock's Quest and Drawn to Life on the Nintendo DS. However, the studio's most famous work has to be the aforementioned Scribblenauts franchise; four titles were produced in total, with Scribblenauts Unlimited and Scribblenauts Unmasked both appearing on the Wii U and 3DS. The news was broken on Twitter by 5th Cell lead animator Tim Borrelli: :RIP 5th Cell. If anyone is looking for kickass artists, programmers, designers, QA, IT, and more, let me know. 5th Cell had been working on Anchors in the Drift, a title which was intended to be crowdfunded via the new Fig platform. It failed to reach its funding target, although the studio was adamant that work would continue with a Summer 2016 release expected. Our thoughts are with 5th Cell's staff. Source: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/03/scribblenauts_studio_5th_cell_is_closing_its_doors =Scribblenauts sequel canceled, series creator lays off staff= ''Scribblenauts'' series developer 5th Cell has laid off the majority of its staff following the sudden cancelation of a sequel game midway through development. Studio CEO Jeremiah Slaczka confirmed that 45 staffers lost their jobs in the wake of the cancelation, but notes that the studio will remain in operation with a drastically reduced workforce. 5th Cell announced this week’s layoffs after publisher Warner Bros. canceled Scribblenauts: Fighting Words, a series sequel being developed for mobile devices. The cancelation caught the studio off-guard, leading to dozens of lost jobs as 5th Cell’s remaining staff scrambles to reassess its business plans. “WB canceled Scribblenauts: Fighting Words today so we had to lay off the staff,” Slaczka told Polygon. “It happened so quick we’re not sure what the plans are going forward yet.” “Unfortunately, due to a project cancelation, we have had to let go of 45 of our very talented staff members today,” Slaczka later clarified in a statement issued to Gamasutra. “Layoffs aren’t something we take lightly and we’d like to thank all our employees for all the hard work and dedication over the years.” Slaczka continued: “5th Cell as a company is not closing down, but our focus right now is 100% on helping our staff make the transition to other external opportunities. If we haven’t already reached out, any interested employer can reach us at jobs@5thcell.com.” 5th Cell found its initial success on the Nintendo DS with titles like Drawn to Life, a creativity-focused game that encouraged players to solve puzzles by drawing specific tools and weapons on the platform’s touch screen. The studio continued to explore the realm of player-dictated content with Scribblenauts, an inventive puzzle-platformer in which players can summon thousands of interactive objects and characters by inputting specific words and phrases. A Scribblenauts sequel premiered in 2010, and a third entry in the series, Scribblenauts Unlimited, hit the 3DS, Wii U, and PC platforms in 2012. The superhero-themed Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure was the final series entry to ship for consoles and PCs in 2013. Source: http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/scribblenauts-sequel-canceled-developer-lays-off-staff/ ='Scribblenauts: Fighting Words' News & Update: Warner Bros Cancelled The Game, Developer Lays Off Employees= Game developer 5th Cell has laid off some of its employees because a game currently in development has been cancelled. Scribblenauts: Fighting Words, the iOS adaptation of Scribblenauts has been cancelled by Warner Bros, reports IGN. As a result, 45 of 5th Cell's employees that included game designers and programmers have been laid off. "Layoffs aren't something we take lightly and we'd like to thank all our employees for the hard work and dedication over the years," reads a statement from 5th Cell. Although the company itself is not shutting down, its current focus is to help its staff go through the transition towards other “external opportunities.” 5th Cell CEO Jeremiah Slaczka said that the game's cancellation happened so fast. "WB cancelled Scribblenauts: Fighting Words so we had to lay off the staff," Slaczka told Polygon. "It happened so quick we're not sure what the plans are going forward yet." Tim Borrelli, former lead programmer for 5th Cell, posted several tweets in regards to the layoffs. First, Borrelli mentioned that the company was shutting down, and asked if anybody was interested in looking for “artists, programmers, designers, QA, IT, and more.” :RIP 5TH Cell. If anyone is looking for kickass artists, programmers, designers, QA, IT, and more, let me know. pic.twitter.com/xwMZVF76Wb :— Tim Borrelli (@Anim8der) March 21, 2016 Next, he tweeted that he was part of the first batch of people who were laid off, noting that the company was shutting down as he picked up his belongings. :. @MOOMANiBE I was part of the first round of layoffs last week. Today while I was picking my stuff up they shut the studio down :( — Tim Borrelli (@Anim8der) March 21, 2016 Apparently, this is sad news. 5th Cell is a game company focusing on mobile games, and was founded in 2003. Their biggest hit, the original Scribblenauts, was released for the Nintendo DS in 2009. It received a follow-up, Super Scribblenauts, which was released in 2010. Scribblenauts: Fighting Words appeared to be the game ported to iOS devices. Those interested in hiring former 5th Cell employees should contact the developer at jobs@5thcell.com. Category:Blog posts